Smith's Ballpark (formerly known as Franklin Quest Field, later Franklin Covey Field, and more recently Spring Mobile Ballpark) is a

baseball park A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called the infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part ba ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. It was the home field of the

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

Salt Lake Bees The Salt Lake Bees are a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team that plays in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and are the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. Based in South Jordan, Utah, the team plays its home games at The Ballpark at Am ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

and the collegiate

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans in the Unite ...

of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

History

Smith's Ballpark opened in 1994 with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 15,400, the largest in the Pacific Coast League. It is located on the site of its predecessor, Derks Field, with a similar unorthodox southeast alignment, toward the

Wasatch Range The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Gr ...

. Derks Field was originally known as Community Field. In its first season in 1994, the Buzz set a PCL attendance record with 713,224 fans. The team led the PCL in attendance in each of its first six seasons in Salt Lake. The largest crowd at the ballpark is 16,531 in 2000; the Saturday night opponent was the Albuquerque Dukes on July 22. Besides hosting the

, Smith's Ballpark has played host to two exhibition games featuring the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

, a spring training game featuring the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

and the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

, concerts, soccer matches, and high school and college baseball games, including a Mountain West Conference tournament. The ballpark has hosted the Triple-A All-Star Game twice. In 1996, a team of

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

-affiliated All-Stars defeated their

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

opponents, 2–1. Salt Lake's Todd Walker was selected as the PCL MVP. The game returned to the park in 2011 with the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

All-Stars beating the PCL team, 3–0. In January 2023, the Larry H. Miller Company, owner of the Salt Lake Bees, announced that they would be building a privately-financed stadium in the Daybreak section of suburban South Jordan, Utah, with a planned opening in the spring of 2025, ending a 31-year run at Smith's Ballpark. In April 2023, the University of Utah announced plans to explore a fundraising drive for the construction of a new ballpark for the Utah Utes baseball program on the site of their current practice facility. The move—which could be completed as early as 2025—would relocate the Utes program from Smith's Ballpark to the new facility. On June 21, 2023, outfielder Jo Adell hit a 514-foot home run at the ballpark, the longest home run ever hit – in either minor or major league baseball – since Statcast tracking started in 2015. The Bees plan to leave Smith's Ballpark for Daybreak Field at America First Square, a new ballpark in South Jordan, Utah, after the 2024 season.

Naming rights

When the ballpark opened in 1994, it was called Franklin Quest Field, for which the Franklin Quest Company paid $1.4 million in the summer of 1993 for 15 years of naming rights. In 2009, the Bees announced on April 7 that they had reached a multi-year naming-rights deal with Spring Mobile (a

-based

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

authorized retailer) to provide the ballpark's new name of Spring Mobile Ballpark which ran for five seasons. In March 2014, it was announced that Salt Lake City-based

Smith's Food and Drug Smith's Food and Drug, or simply Smith's, is an American regional supermarket chain that was founded by Lorenzo Smith in 1911 in Brigham City, Utah. Headquartered in Salt Lake City with stores in Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, ...

had signed a six-year naming rights deal, giving the park its current name.

Features

Smith's Ballpark is noted for its views of the Wasatch Mountains over the left and center field walls.

Redevelopment

In early 2024, the Miller family foundation announced a $22 million donation to Salt Lake City's Ballpark NEXT fund. This fund, managed by Salt Lake City, is conducting a $100-million program to improve the neighborhood, including and surrounding Smith's Ballpark.

Public transportation

Ballpark station is a light rail station in the People's Freeway neighborhood, served by all three lines of

Utah Transit Authority The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is a special service district responsible for providing public transportation throughout the Wasatch Front of Utah, in the United States, which includes the metropolitan areas of Ogden, Utah, Ogden, Park City, U ...

's TRAX light rail system. The station is located at 180 West 1300 South (1300 South is a major east–west route through Salt Lake City and the station is easily accessed from that street). It is about a half a block northwest of the Smith's Ballpark.

References

External links

* {{Utah NCAA Division I college baseball venue navbox College baseball venues in the United States Utah Utes baseball Minor league baseball venues Utah Utes sports venues Baseball venues in Utah Sports venues completed in 1994 1994 establishments in Utah Populous (company) buildings Pacific Coast League ballparks